First things first – read this post. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.
…
Now, let me try to figure out where you stand. You could be in one of three camps:
- You respect Chris Brogan and you’re put off by that post,
- You think the blogger is raising some valid points, or
- You just don’t care
If you’re in Camp #1, you’re thinking and feeling the same way that I do. If you sifted through the comments, you probably saw a lot of other people feeling the same way. You might have even seen my comment.
I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say. I was definitely going to say something – there’s no question about that. I thought about the various avenues I could take. Most social media types would tell us to be courteous, right? Maybe I could leave a comment that politely acknowledged something in the post that had validity and then calmly make my case against the rest. Yeah, that’s what I could do!
Nah. I’d rather call him a tool. That’s being real.
While we’re building all these relationships, we need to remember to maintain them, too. That means having that person’s back. If someone were to talk down one of my close friends, I would not let that fly. When someone launches an unwarranted attack on a respectable guy like Chris, I won’t let that fly, either.
The same goes for my tweeps, my FriendFeeders, my PodCampers, BarCampers, blog readers and anyone else I like and respect. If we’re going to push for authenticity and trumpet for more emotion by means of social media, then we need to start being more human. I’m a pretty considerate guy and I try to be as nice as possible as much as possible.
But sometimes, you can’t be. Sometimes you need to fight back.
